First published in 1984 by Dr. Heinz Leyman In a report on Safety and Health in Work Life, he used the term mobbing for the first time to include intimidation, pressure, and psychological harassment. Originally meaning social bullying by a group of people towards one person or group, mobbing is not limited to the workplace. Any place where working in groups is mandatory, such as universities, schools, associations, other governmental or non-governmental organizations, can be a mobbing area. The term mobbing covers all psychological terror, emotional harassment, psychological abuse, and bullying. In short, mobbing is the physical, psychological, or social harassment, abuse, or intimidation of employees. Exposure to psychological pressure in the workplace has become an increasing problem in recent years. Types of Mobbing Behaviors such as physical, psychological or social harassment, discrimination, increasing workload, threatening to dismiss, and discrediting employees are types of mobbing. The harassment that people at the same level apply to each other is called horizontal mobbing, while psychological violence from an employee to a manager is upward mobbing. Mobbing from a manager to an employee is called downward mobbing. Employees hiding information or giving false information, making unfair complaints and accusations, gossiping and slandering are in the upward mobbing group. Employees who are under equal conditions apply to each other due to reasons such as envy, competition or personal dissatisfaction is a type of horizontal mobbing. The exclusion of an employee by other employees, constant criticism and belittling by other employees is a type of horizontal mobbing. If an employer, rector, dean, manager or any manager to subordinate employees applies psychological harassment; this is a type of downward mobbing. In this type of mobbing, the harasser gets his power from the hierarchy within the workplace. As an authority or manager, he abuses his authority such as directing and ruling, giving instructions to another employee who is lower than he is, and this is a type of downward mobbing. The reasons can be like the existence of a subordinate who is more successful than him, age difference, and favoritism. Favoritism is the most common cause of mobbing today. If a person is promoted to a higher position, usually for political reasons, regardless of their merit, they may feel more powerful and untouchable. In this case, the employee whose political views are not close to theirs is a potential victim of mobbing. Academic Mobbing The happiness of employees at work depends on the personal relationships between employees and the relationships between colleagues. This does not change when the workplace is an academic environment. Relationships between academic and administrative staff at universities, as academic institutions, increase the happiness and, therefore, the productivity of academics working at universities. According to the literature, mobbing is more common nowadays in universities. Mobbing is a form of social elimination after identifying an academic who is perceived to be problematic or who is determined to be a target. In fact, mobbing is different from bullying. In mobbing, other academics form a group or gang against the targeted academic . The ultimate goal is to expel the academic who is determined and targeted from the university or to neutralize him. As the number of academics involved in mobbing increases, the intensity and effect of mobbing also increases, and mobbing becomes a widespread harassment in that academic institution. Faculty mobbing incidents can be brought to light through reports and complaints from colleagues. However, faculty mobbing, although common in an academic setting, continues silently. Therefore, its visibility is low. Since mobbing is silent in an academic institution, it is almost impossible to voice and document. Mobbing in an academic institution is a threat to the image of the university. This threat can be eliminated with the sensitivity of the administrative staff in that academic institution. However, if the administrator implements the problem, that is, harassment or mobbing, what should be done? The situation of who to complain to arises here. Consider an academic institution authority, say rector, or dean or head of department. He is jealous of his employee because he has not been promoted to the top based on his own merit. He wants to dominate and intimidate his subordinates by using mobbing. He gives them too much work, assigns them to another unit, gives them a job that is seen as degrading, etc. Think of an academic institution authority, say rector, or dean or head of department. If he does not have academic power, he looks for ways to compensate for this. He uses his authority to mob the academic he targets. He constantly monitors them and makes files of documents. Consider an academic institution authority, say rector, or dean or head of department. In order to protect his own position, he applies typical downward mobbing types to the employees he deems risky. He monitors and files the notes to be used in future steps. If that is not enough, he removes them from the center within his authority. Consider an academic institution authority, say rector, or dean or head of department. He/she shows favoritism in promotions that are in line with the academic hierarchy. He/she gives priority to those who are close to him/her or to his/her political views, beliefs, sect, or congregation in the hierarchical advancement, and delays or does not give promotions to those who are not close to him/her. This situation, which is implicit and undocumented but within the authority granted to the administrator, is also seen as psychological mobbing. Academic mobbing is often not a situation that is obvious, visible or documented. As its name suggests, mobbing is psychological harassment. The Turkish Presidency has published the Circular on Preventing Psychological Harassment in Workplaces (2025/3). This circular also includes the responsibilities of managers to prevent psychological harassment. However, it is necessary to find an answer to a fundamental question and problem! What if the manager is the one doing the mobbing?